


A Strange Halloween

by electracait



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV), Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Action/Adventure, Established Relationship, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Inspired by brooklyn nine-nine, Iron Dad, IronStrange, Light Angst, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-15 04:29:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14783610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electracait/pseuds/electracait
Summary: Nebula detests Halloween, even more so when she has to go out on the streets as Peter's crime-fighting buddy. Meanwhile, Tony and Stephen start some friendly competition, involving the rest of their friends:Stephen saw the challenge underlying Tony’s words and well, he was never one to back down from a challenge. He glanced at Tony, a smug grin in place; “I’m fairly certain you would be caught…no scratch that, I’m 100% sure you’d be caught.” Strange could hear Wong’s sigh as Tony bristled against him. The challenge had been formally declared.“Ho ho ho. All right, challenge accepted!” At Tony’s words everyone seemed to snap to attention, Halloween had just gotten interesting.(Literally a remake of one of my favorite B99 episodes with some slight changes).





	1. TO SET A CHALLENGE

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys, so I wanted to write some IronStrange but I didn't know how or what about exactly. I was thinking it over whilst watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine (ten out of ten do recommend) when it occurred to me to adapt my favorite episode to our faves lives so, well, this fic was born. 
> 
> It's very obviously heavily influenced by Brooklyn Nine-Nine episode 'Halloween' of Season One although I did make some small changes to include all the characters, some more in-depth thoughts from Tony and Stephen, and to extend Peter and Nebula's story and to make them the 'perfect' crime-fighting duo.
> 
> Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this and, of course, please tell me if you spot any mistakes or inconsistencies throughout my story! (Also pls send me prayers so that I'll be inspired and come up with a plot that is entirely my own, I want to write them so bad but my inspiration is at level zero, zero you guys! Send help).

To say Stephen was annoyed would be an understatement. He’d never liked this day, always finding it incredibly childish and pointless. To make matters worse, Tony had insisted on having a small get-together in his penthouse, going as far as to invite the Guardians of the Galaxy. He found it rather amusing how, after they managed to undo all of Thanos’s chaos, Quill and Tony had formed a friendship, which of course meant they were all friends now. Poor Peter Parker even went as far as calling their small group the ‘Better Avengers’, a name that was swiftly rejected by Tony.

 

No matter how fond the memories made him it did not lessen his annoyance nor the headache that raised as soon as he stepped foot inside the apartment.Drax and Rocket seemed involved in some sort of playful fight, rushing past him and nearly knocking him sideways if it wasn’t for his cape and Tony’s hand gripping his elbow tightly.  “Ugh! Halloween is the worst. Everyone’s drunk wearing a mask and carrying fake weapons. Plus lately, everyone seems to think they have to dress _sexy.”_

 

Tony merely smirked at his declaration, knowing the source of Stephen’s frustration, they’ve had this talk before. Whilst Tony seemed to enjoy Halloween, Strange merely saw it as an inconvenience and an even bigger one ever since he became Sorcerer Supreme since his usual attire was misinterpreted as a ‘cheap costume’. Yet Tony wouldn’t be Tony if his first reply did not contain at least an ounce of sarcasm: “I know, it’s the worst. Please make them stop.” 

 

Stephen narrowed his eyes in a mock glare at the genius, the only acknowledgment he gave before continuing onwards with his tirade. “I passed a slutty tree on my way here, who wants to have sex with a tree?”  
He knew as soon as he said it though, Groot’s voice piping up from the couch; “I am Groot?” Several heads turned towards Rocket who gave an exasperated sigh along with a mildly disgusted glare at Groot. “He asked if it was a Maple.” Tony’s grin widened, his eyes darting from Groot to Stephen, “Well? Was it a Maple, Strange?”

 

Strange groaned, turning away from the lot and going over to join Wong by the wall. Most times he didn’t know why he bothered. He didn’t have time to whine to Wong, who was probably counting his blessings on that one, as Peter Parker barged in through the door an overly excited grin on his face and a hideous cook costume in place with an orange wig to accompany it. 

 

“Hi, guys! Sorry, I’m late, couldn’t decide on my costume, but it’s pretty cool huh?” Tony rolled his eyes at the sight, feigning annoyance although an impossible fond grin was settled on his face. It was a secret to no one that Peter Parker had warmed his way inside Stark’s heart, becoming a son-figure in the man’s life, no matter how much the other tried to deny it.  “All right, let me guess, you are…Dumpy Chuck Norris.” Peter’s face fell at Tony’s comment seemingly gravely offended by the fact that the other had apparently not guessed it. “No! I’m—” The poor kid didn’t manage to get another word in, Gamora quickly interrupting him with a shout of “Dumpy Ron Weasley!” 

 

Tony had to quickly turn away to hide his laughter at Peter’s aggravated expression and Stephen’s accusatory glance. So yes, he had introduced the Guardian’s to Harry Potter, sue him, but he felt like they all should understand the references he constantly threw at Strange. Peter’s outraged ‘no’ was quickly drowned by Drax’s voice, who was looking at everyone at the room as if they were blind or stupid; “Guys, he is obviously Peter Parker wearing a costume…”Tony lost it. 

 

“I’m Mario Batali! Celebrity Chef!” Bruce shook his head, placing a hand on the kid’s shoulder; “Sorry man, you look more like Eric Stoltz from Mask.” Peter gave a defeated shrug, heading over to join Groot on the couch; “I’ll take it.” 

 

Tony didn’t know how he managed to be this lucky. Two years ago he had been stranded on some planet with a torture victim, covered in Peter’s and Strange’s and part of the Guardian’s dust. Now he was surrounded by all of them and more, it still seemed so crazy whenever he thought about it, everything had changed although seemingly for the better.  He never thought he’d make it to this moment, all his close friends reunited within his house for a small get-together. He and Pepper had to call it quits, they were still close friends of course, but him leaving on that spaceship had been Pepper’s breaking point, she needed a more stable relationship and that was something he couldn’t promise her, no matter how much he wanted. So they called it off, it had been rough at first, for both of them, accepting that it couldn’t work. Rhodey and Happy had been the most supportive friends throughout the whole ordeal until finally, they were able to reach a place of where it didn’t hurt to see each other and the ‘what ifs’ no longer haunted them. 

 

The Guardians, Strange and Wong had also been an unpredicted outcome. Sure they had bonded, especially with Stephen sacrificing himself for them but Tony never thought they would all want to stick with him after it was all over. He was proven very wrong however when the Guardian’s crash-landed on his roof for a ‘surprise visit’ which turned into a very common event. 

 

With Strange, it had been different, however. They both seemed unable to stay apart, at first it was with ridiculous excuses as to why they needed each other’s presence. Strange needed help on a case (that he definitely could have done alone or with Wong) and Tony declared all magic to be bullshit just to set Stephen off on hour longs tirades and demonstrations to prove how real it was.  Soon it turned into something more real, Stephen actually enjoyed Tony’s company, the billionaire kept up with his snark and wit and delivered it right back making it rather enjoyable to be in his company, as for Tony he quickly realised how much he liked the fact that Stephen actually took the time to listen to his thoughts and ideas and not only that but he considered not, never taking them for granted. Tony could count on one hand the number of people that did that, it was refreshing to meet someone else who did. With that Tony’s and Stephen’s friendship quickly developed and deepened over time, of course, the process was even more accelerated thanks to young Peter’s pure joy (and countless prodding) once he saw them actually getting along.

 

“Tony!” A grave voice snapped him back from his daydream, eyes darting up to match Stephen’s steely blue eyes. “What was that, Dumbledore?” The blue eyes rolled in mock annoyance as he repeated his question: “I asked if—”  He never managed to repeat himself, however, finding himself interrupted by Friday’s alarm blaring through the speakers: “Boss, Bulgur, and his gang have been spotted in Dekalb Street, at a warehouse party.”

 

He placed a comforting hand on the small of Tony’s back upon the shorter man’s groan of annoyance, an amused grin dredging up at Peter’s whoop of excitement. Bulgur was Spiderman’s new nemesis, meaning Bulgur was also Ironman’s new nemesis. Peter had been tracking him and his gang under the suspicion that they were trafficking weapons from outer-space around the globe.  The poor kid had gone weeks without a lead and feeling utterly defeated making Tony step in and program Friday to track Bulgur in the hopes of getting a new lead for Peter. He could tell, though, that right now Tony just wanted to relax and not go off in another mission, they all deserved the break although he could already tell that there would be no stopping Peter with this one. 

 

He glanced around the room, spotting Rocket and Groot wrestling over a video game console, Drax, Happy and Mantis speaking in not-so-hushed whispers, glancing every so often at Peter’s costume, Quill and Gamora…were nowhere to be seen actually. Bruce, Rhodey, Pepper, and Wong engaged in a conversation and actively ignoring all eye contact with everyone else, really not subtle at all, and finally Nebula, sitting by Peter looking beyond bored.

“Peter, why don’t you go with Nebula…undercover, to see what they’re doing, if you need help, radio in.” 

 

He ignored Tony’s scoff at his wording, pulling him out of the way as Peter all but ran to the door, Nebula following behind him looking both intrigued and annoyed. That’s right, she had hated the concept of Halloween too and Stephen had just sent her out on the streets, well, it was only fair someone else suffered.

 

“This is great! Nebu, I know that you hate Halloween, but stick with me and I promise that you’ll love it!” Peter’s overexcited tone was met with a neutral, bordering on desperate tone, “Can you magically make everyone sober and fully dressed?”  Strange quickly shook his head at Peter’s questioning glance to state that, no, he could not do that, nor would he tried. 

 

“Sober and fully dressed! Good news everyone, we found the name of Nebula’s sex tape!” Quill’s finally emerged, having apparently hidden in the balcony with Gamora. He grinned proudly towards Nebula, knowing fully that he might have just as well begged to be decapitated. Peter, sensing the danger arising and the fact that precious time was running chose wisely to simply grab Nebula by the arm and drag her outside before she had time to retaliate, tossing a quick goodbye to everyone.

 

With the fact that Peter and Nebula were more than capable to handle themselves and the fact that Tony could, and most likely was tracking their every move, the party seems to start back up. They had all piled on and around the couches, going from easy chatter to watching Gamora and Drax decide what scary movie they should watch. Tony and Stephen had claimed the love-sit, much to Quill’s protest that he had reserved it for him and Gamora, Groot had pulled a second console out after Rocket managed to steal the first and in consequence, Rocket was ranting to Mantis.

 

Stephen Strange would never end to be amazed as to how his life turned out. Never in a billion years would he have predicted this but he also wouldn’t trade it for anything. It had been a long time since he had felt so at peace with everything, despite his annoyance for Halloween, he had to admit that this was probably one of the best nights he’d had and it was barely starting. 

 

He really liked it if he had to be honest. Despite the vast amount of differences they all had, they had slowly morphed into a family. Even when they tended to disagree, the arguments were never explosive and they were all quick to made-up. It had also allowed him to see a new side of Tony, a truly unguarded one. Stephen had noted, of course, how at first Stark had seemed on edge around everyone, except the kid, always expecting to be second-guessed. He saw the surprise in Tony’s eyes, back in the spaceship, when the billionaire realized that Stephen had actually bothered to listen to his plan.

 

Slowly but surely, after everything had passed, Stephen got to know the real Tony and in turn, Stark got to see the real him. They both noticed how much they fit, both were able to keep up with each other, to respect yet still tease each other. Even Stephen had to admit that they slowly became inseparable, and in any case, Wong pointed it out so much that it was impossible to deny it anymore.

 

He was pulled out from his thoughts as Tony exclaimed loudly beside him: “I’m just saying! These new villains are so stupid…I’d make a better criminal than any of them.”  Drax nodded vehemently, having apparently left the movie search to Gamora. “You’d be an evil mastermind and everyone would call you the handsome bandit.”  Quill groaned at Drax’s words, mumbling something about how Tony’s ego didn’t need to be stroked but his comments were only met with a grimace from Stark. “Thank you, Drax! But the best part is that none of you could catch me.”

 

Tony’s declarations were met with loud protests. Gamora snorted from her spot on the floor, Rhodey scoffed at Tony whilst Bruce let out an “Oh come on…” Pepper opted for a silent eye-roll rather than saying anything whilst Rocket seemingly died of laughter much to Tony’s severely offended look. “I’m serious! None of you could!”  Stephen saw the challenge underlying Tony’s words and well, he was never one to back down from a challenge. He glanced at Tony, a smug grin in place; “I’m fairly certain you would be caught…no scratch that, I’m 100% sure you’d be caught.” Strange could hear Wong’s sigh as Tony bristled against him. The challenge had been formally declared.

 

“Ho ho ho. All right, challenge accepted!” At Tony’s words everyone seemed to snap to attention, Halloween had just gotten interesting. Stark straightened up and turned in his seat in an attempt to meet Stephen eye to eye rather than eye to nose; “What’s your most valuable possession?”  Stephen thought it over, he didn’t have that many possessions and most of them Wong would never let him enter them into this silly contest. Only one came to mind, he still held it dearly, a reminder of his past. “My neurosurgery medal.” Tony groaned at the words seemingly exasperated by the choice.

 

“God you are such a hero. All right how about this, Strange, I’ll bet you that by midnight tonight, I can steal you neurosurgery medal.”

 

“Why would I agree to that exactly?” Came Stephen’s reply.

 

“Because if I lose I’ll declare you a genius and let you do that thing you like but if _I_ win—“

 

“—You won’t.”

 

“You have to make me breakfast in bed and declare that technology is better than magic.”

 

“I’m considering it…I’m interested…I agree to participate. No use of magic to make things untouchable and no use of FRIDAY to unlock doors or crack passwords.”

 

“All right! There’s the robot I fell in love with!”

 

The group cheered around them. The night had just begun. 

 


	2. TO FORM ALLIANCES

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We explore Nebula's and Spiderman's mission and more.

“Okay, the place is right around the corner, the tipster said there’ll be a huge amount of trafficking activity tonight!” 

Peter’s overexcited tone was met with Nebula’s confused one. “Why are you still wearing your costume? Won’t you need your suit?”

 

They were standing out in the street, Peter deeming it safe enough for them to be in plain sight since there were about five other ‘Spidermans' surrounding them, no one would ever suspect them especially not when he didn’t have his suit. Halloween, in his opinion, was the best since it was so much easier to hide in plain sight. “My suit is under the costume, double disguise!” 

 

Nebula glanced at him with an expression that conveyed pure worry over his well-being. “I don’t understand, it’s pointless.” She started to move in the direction of the warehouse, leaving Peter trailing behind her. 

“There’s no point of you wearing two costumes.”

“Hey! One is _not_ a costume!”

“Is too!”

 

Stephen was amused, he had peeked slightly into Peter’s and Nebula’s mission just to make sure they were all right. The kid had grown on him, Peter had sort of imposed himself in Stephen’s life much like he had done with Tony. His constant happy mood and eager-to-help attitude were hard to reject.

 

He was currently hiding out in his office, inside Tony’s house, having made a quick exit from the movie session once Drax started demanding explanations of every single detail of the film, there was only so much he could take. He closed the screen of Peter and Nebula’s footage, glancing towards his neurosurgery medal that laid in his open drawer, Tony had seemed far too busy explaining the movie along with Bruce to even remember about the bet, so Stephen had deemed it safe to leave it there and he was about to as well, finally ready to rejoin the party, when dust started to trickle down from the ceiling. He glanced up, eyebrow rising in suspicion towards the source of the dust.

“FRIDAY, is one of Tony’s bots in the ceiling?”

 

The AI’s voice rose up, somehow managing to sound guilty: “…No?” Stephen let out a sigh, amused at what was happening. He knew that the bot probably had a camera feed, microphone built-in and all. “So what was the plan, Tones? Wait until I left, lower the bot down, take the medal, and win the bet?” 

 

“Boss wants to know who you’re talking to.”

 

Stephen shook his head as he stood up, grabbing his medal on his way to a small cabinet that stood against the wall. “All right, Tones, just so you know, right now I’m taking my medal out of the drawer and placing it in a locked safe. Whose combination is known only to me. The safe, in turn, is locked in the cabinet and the only key to that cabinet is on my person.”

 

He aimed a wink at the ceiling, knowing that Tony was probably watching before exiting and locking the room and joining the rest back in the living room. Tony and Rhodey were missing from the room and it seemed like no one had noticed, or no one cared about it at the very least. Stephen placed a hand against his pocket, relaxing when he felt the key bulge through them, deciding he might need some help with that winning, he went over to Star-Lord. He was determined not to lose this challenge.

 

Only ten minutes had passed when Peter and Nebula came barging back in through the door. Peter looking somewhat sheepish whilst Nebula looked downright murderous; Gamora immediately strode over, inspecting the both of them who seemed to covered in eggs. “What happened? You guys are a mess.” Nebula growled out at her sister’s question making Peter take the lead in answering the questions. “We got egged. Nebu told some kids their costumes were ‘pathetic’ and well…they didn’t take it too kindly?” 

 

“Well sounds like costume duty is going great for you guys.” Right on time, Tony strode back into the room with a snarky comment, eyeing both of them with amusement. Poor Peter, probably trying to convince Nebula to head back out with him or to stop anyone from interfering with his stakeout nodded in agreement. “So great Mr. Stark! Right, Nebu?”

He turned with a look of pure hope towards his teammate only to receive a dry reply: “I wish I was dead.” 

 

Gamora, deciding to change the topic before her little sister truly exploded turned to look at Stark with a wry grin. “How’s the unwinnable bet going?” At that, Tony’s smile lessened into a more aggravated one, crossing his arms and refusing to look towards Strange’s direction, who was currently ushering Peter and Nebula into heading off to clean themselves up. “Well, on the one hand, my bot fell through the ceiling and splattered itself but on the other hand, I also destroyed yet another room of this house.” 

 

“If you wanted to make a bet with Strange you should have made a bet you could win, like who wears more superhero-themed pajamas.” Tony turned to look at Pepper with a look of betrayal, throwing his arms up.  
“That was one time! You never forget anything, do you? You know, frankly I’m a little surprised you guys don’t think I can win this, you’re constantly telling me how great I am.”

Pepper tilted her head as if contemplating the statement, fighting back a smile. “I’m pretty it’s only Peter and Happy telling you that.”

 

As if taking some pity on him, Bruce stood up from the couch, joining Pepper and Stark on his small pity party. “Tony, I love you like a brother, but this isn’t about you or how smart you are. It’s about Strange, he’s cunning.” Tony raised an incredulous eyebrow towards Bruce, conveying his disapproval at the scientists chosen words. “Don’t look at me like that! He’s always been able to figure you out!” The billionaire merely shook his head, feeling even more challenged than before. “Well, not this day! Rhodey! We’ve got planning to do!” 

 

Bruce shook his head as Tony and Rhodey headed back down to the labs, he wasn’t exactly sure if he had helped anyone. 

 

Thirty minutes later, Peter and Nebula were back on the streets, Peter having finally ditched his costume, wearing his Spiderman suit. Apparently, Nebula had found a person willing to talk to them about the warehouse’s happenings and they were currently trying to interrogate him. “I’m telling you, they’re all dressed up in costumes too, to help them go unnoticed. The leader is dressed up as a royal or somethin’.” Their informant left much to be desired, the guy was dressed as a space-general himself and seemed to be in no hurry to give hard details but it was the best they could find and Peter was not going to let these guys go.

 

Nebula stifled a small bout of laughter as the sandy-haired informant straightened his hat. Peter glanced between them, noting how the man seemed to bristle at the laugh. As if sensing Peter’s awareness, the informant turned to look at him, “She keeps laughing at me!” Spiderman rose his hands up in an attempt to placate the man, grimacing under his mask, they couldn’t afford to lose his help. 

 

“Can’t tell you how many generals I wanted to beat up when I was in school. Ten.”Peter shifted his stare from the informant unto Nebula. Well, that was new, despite their growing friendship, Peter didn’t know much about her, much less that she had actually gone to school. “I didn’t know you went to um…army school?” Nebula glowered slightly, realizing she had shared far more than what she liked. “Good, you shouldn’t know it.” 

 

Peter scoffed. “Oh come on Nebu! We’re friends, no need to be so dark and mysterious. I know that underneath it all you’re a big softy!” Nebula’s stare turned into an icy glare at the words but Peter remained undeterred, despite their informant butting in with: “No I think she’s really mean.” With a warning look thrown in for Spiderman. 

 

Peter continued nevertheless, despite his wanting to catch the criminals he was not about to pass up the opportunity to bond with his partner. “You probably read a poem at your graduation and cried…did you have a graduation?” Nebula shifted slightly, crossing her arms over her chest, face set on the glare; “No, we didn’t have a graduation. Besides I had to leave early.” Peter’s curiosity peaked and by the looks of it, so had the informant’s, who was now staring at Nebula. 

 

“Why? What did you do?” Nebula aimed a sickly sweet smile and leaned in towards Peter. “Here’s a hint: I’m not gonna tell you.” She straightened up and headed off, dragging the poor informant with her. Peter quickly schooled the pure look of indignation that had crossed his face, hurrying to catch up. “Oh, I’m going to find out anyway! I’m basically a detective now! I will detect!”

 

Meanwhile, back at the penthouse, Tony was trying his best at bribing Wong for some information. “Hey, Wong! How have you been doing? We never talk anymore, did you get a haircut? What are some important numbers for Stephen?” Wong didn’t even bother to look up from the game of chess he was currently playing against Mantis. “I’m not going to help you rob Stephen, Stark. I am his friend, I take that role incredibly seriously.” Tony blinked down at the man, not believing him for a second. “Don’t you push him through portals when you get sick of him? Because I remember him landing on a heap here several times…” Wong didn’t even have the decency to look guilty. “I was just making sure you two got to see each other often.” 

 

Tony wasn’t proud of what he did next and would vehemently deny it if asked. “Come on, Wong, please?” Perhaps it was the fact that Anthony Edward Stark had just begged him or the fact that Wong liked to prank Stephen just as much that he gave a resigned sigh and joined Team Stark. “All right fine, I’ll challenge Stephen to a game of chess in ten minutes. That should give you enough time.” Tony’s grin impossibly widened and he leaned in to place a kiss on Wong’s forehead. “Wong you’re also invited to my future wedding!” 

 

Wong recoiled back with a noise of protest, wiping Tony’s drool from his forehead; “Don’t do that!” The genius merely laughed in reply, although his eyebrows slightly furrowed as he felt his lips. 

“What does your skin taste like?”

 

“Dina Lohan, I’m wearing her face lotion.”

 

Tony nodded in agreement, not bothering to ask any further as he had a feeling that he did not want to know the why of that answer. “That’s it. Thanks, Wong!” Quickly he headed off to where he had left Rhodey, eager to plan some more now that he had an advantage. 

 

Stephen knew Wong was up to something, he had been on his way back to his office just to make sure everything was all right, not putting it past Tony to melt his safe open, when he was intercepted by Wong who for some reason was hell-bent on playing chess with him. The traitor, really, good and loyal friends were hard to come by nowadays.

“I’m just saying Stephen, it’s been awhile since we played chess.” 

 

“And it’ll continue to be awhile, Wong, I have a challenge to win.” 

 

“What? Afraid you’ll lose against me?”

 

Stephen turned to face Wong, ready to argue that last statement when a moving shadow caught his eye. Someone was inside his office, holding up a finger to Wong, he leaned back to get a better look spotting Rhodey, hunched over near his cabinet, wearing Star-Lord’s jacket and helmet. “Rhodey, is that you in my office? Nice costume by the way.” 

The figure froze, back remaining turned towards the door. “No Rhodey here! Just me…Star-Lord, making sure your medal is safe.” 

 

Stephen tilted his head in slight annoyance, he wasn’t that easily tricked. “Get out of there.” He smirked as he heard Rhodey’s defeated sigh, eyeing the man with amusement as he made his way over. “Stephen, hey!”

 

“Did you and Tony really think this was going to work?” 

 

“It did work…this was designed to fail.”

 

“I expected much better of you two, you could have at least created a diversion.”

 

Rhodey had pure embarrassment written over his face and Stephen was sure that from wherever his boyfriend was watching, Tony had a look to match. “We did have a diversion, there was just a slight timing issue apparently.” Stephen rose an eyebrow in question at the same time Wong gasped in terror. Both Rhodey and Stephen turned to see, just in time, the cause of Wong’s horror. Dum-E coming at full speed towards them, fire extinguisher in hand. “Dum-E no!” 

But Dum-E did. 


	3. TO FIND A KING

Peter had been drilling Nebula non-stop on their way to the warehouse. Even the poor informant seemed to be over it. They were currently trying to pinpoint who the ringleader was but there were at least eight people dressed as kings and Peter was still wondering how that costume was a thing, it was so last year in his opinion. Nebula seemed far more focused on their mission than Peter, narrowing her eyes at each suspect before turning towards Greg, their informant. “Any of them look familiar?” 

 

Greg scanned the room again, shaking his head slightly. “I didn’t get that good of a look but the dude was pretty short, maybe it’s the one over by the door.” Nebula gave a sigh, turning over to look at Peter; “What do you think?” Peter snapped from his thoughts turning to look at Nebula. “I still wonder why you left school early.” Nebula groaned in despair. 

 

“Were you doing drugs?” 

“Worse.”

Peter raised his eyebrows in both concern and curiosity, “Selling drugs?”

“Worse.”

“How bad could it be? Did you burn down the building?”

Nebula turned towards Greg, teeth clenched tightly as she tried to gather some form of patience. “Greg, say worse.” The poor informant shifted his glance from Nebula to Peter, in a slightly nervous voice he complied, deciding Nebula was far too scary to not comply. “Worse?” Peter groaned, giving up on the moment and focusing on their primary target. “He’s entering the warehouse! Let’s head in through the roof…and I will find out!” 

 

It turned out the warehouse had a party inside of it, much to Nebula’s displeasure. They stood on the top floor of the warehouse, looking down at the mass of people dancing below them. It was nearly impossible to spot their target. Red, purple and green lights were moving to the music, which was blaring through the various speakers and people in costumes were dancing everywhere. “Are you sure this is the place?” Peter shouted the question towards Greg and Nebula, glancing around to see if he could spot the King. Greg nodded, “They’re conducting their business at the back! This is a cover-up, we gotta blend in and get close.”

 

Peter nodded and started dancing to the music along with Greg, looking back to look at Nebula, who stood, rigid as a board, glaring at the people around them. This might not work out and sensing that, Peter decided to take action, they had to blend in. He danced up to Nebula, hoping he could make her join besides, it would do her some well to have fun. “Come on Nebu! Loosen up! You look like such a bore!” Nebula didn’t even bother to change her facial expression as Peter bounced around her. “Come on, we can have some fun while we work and it’ll help us blend in.” Finally, Nebula’s stony expression seemed to shift as she uncrossed her arms. “Stop trying to get me to love Halloween, it won’t work.” Testing his luck, Peter ignored Nebula’s short-tempered tone and grabbed her arms, making her move along with him. 

 

“Come on! We’re dancing towards the back!” Nebula’s face took the expression of pure disgust as she freed her arms and back away from Peter, she glanced around to find the nearest escape route but froze when she saw their target heading towards the back as well. “Hey!” She stopped Peter in his tracks, planting two hands on his shoulder and forcing him to stay down, nodding her head towards the King, “Heads up!” 

 

Peter finally sobered up, nodding at her words. “Okay, we can take it from here, Greg, thanks. Nebula…why don’t you try to find the back exit of this place, I’ll follow him through here.” She nodded, thankful that she was able to get out of this place and ran towards the door, pushing people past her. Peter, in turn, ran down the stairs to follow their suspect before he got lost in the sea of people.

 

It was official, aside from the people in the penthouse, Peter and Quill, Nebula hated humans. She was also pushed on her way to the door, tripping on a hazardous foot and falling down to the sticky floor. She was completely disgusted and wanted nothing more than to pull out her blades and kill everyone who dared touch her, but she knew better than that and Gamora had prohibited her from harming humans unless absolutely necessary. She pushed herself back up, trying to wipe her hands on her clothes to no avail and finally made it out the door. 

 

She didn’t understand how people liked this, it was too much noise and far too many people in such a reduced space that it was impossible to not bump against someone with every movement. She rounded up the building, find a back door soon enough; she hid behind a garbage container just in time to not be spotted by two guys exiting. They weren’t wearing ridiculous costumes and Nebula thanked her lucky stars for that, it was easier to take this mission seriously when she wasn’t chasing around someone who wore a cheap plastic crown. 

 

The two possible accomplices got on a motorcycle and sped off, Nebula didn’t bother running after, the bigger target seemed to still be inside. She headed towards the door, ready to barge in through there and take them all out when she stepped on something hard. Glancing down she saw a metallic round object that seemed to have been dropped from one of the two men that had just left, she picked it up just as Peter came running up to meet her, seemingly out of breath. “I lost him, some jerk spilled his drink on me, it was so weird the drink was both hot _and_ cold, but anyways I glanced to see what it was and when I looked back our King was gone.” 

 

Nebula placed what she hoped was a comforting hand on the kid’s shoulders, as much as Peter aggravated her, he wasn’t as hard to tolerate as others and the defeat on his voice made even her feel bad. “I found something, we should go back and analyze it, maybe it can give us another lead. Peter immediately perked up at her words, “That’s amazing, Nebu! Let’s go!” 

 

Back at the penthouse, Stephen was back in his office analyzing the damage done to his ceiling. The hole was huge letting the pipes and wiring peek through, Tony was going to have fun fixing this one. He felt his cloak start to nudge his side and try to turn him around, knowing better than to ignore it by now, Strange turned towards the direction the cloak was nudging him to, noticing a few wires slipping out from the air conditioning vent.

 

Muttering a: “Really now?” Stephen exited his office, making sure he locked it, placed the keys to his office and cabinet back in his pocket and walked into the adjacent room, where his vent was connected to see the one and only Tony Stark, emptying a box full of cables and wires into the vent. He cleared his throat to let his presence be known, managing to keep his face neutral as Tony’s head snapped towards the door. 

“Honey, hi. I was just fixing some stuff.” Stephen knew better by now, whilst Tony was good at keeping a façade, Strange had learned to spot the cracks of it. He leaned against the doorframe, placing a hand against his hip in a cocky stance. “Are you trying to jam cables into my air conditioning vent to flush me out of my office under a fake pretense of faulty wiring?”

 

Tony narrowed his eyes at Stephen, furrowing his brow slightly. “Way to ruin the surprise, Strange.” Stephen rose his eyebrows at the shorter man; “Once more, I am not a savage, I know how the wiring works and that it doesn’t just pour out from the vents when there’s a malfunction.” Tony sighed dropping the box in mild defeat, “For your information, that can totally happen if the cables got a life of their own…or were controlled by _magic_.” Somehow Stephen got the impression that Tony was speaking from experience and made a mental note to ask him about it once this was all over but now was definitely not the time. 

 

He was rather surprised and slightly suspicious that all of Tony’s plans had seemed so childish and thoughtless thus far, his boyfriend was usually much better at planning but then again maybe this sort of friendly competition just wasn’t his boyfriend thing. Still, Stephen was not about to pass up this opportunity to tease him. “Well, so far you and you ‘big fat brain’ are losing— and badly might I add.” Tony scowled heavily at him, raising a threatening finger at his smirking partner. “We’ll see, Voldemort, we’ll see.”

 

Stephen smirk widened despite the nickname, grabbing Tony’s raised hand and using it to pull him in for a soft kiss. The fight seemed to leave the billionaire’s body as he leaned in further to deepen it, pulling away a minute later to breathe but staying close to the warmth of his boyfriend's body. “I love you, you ass.” Stephen let out a warm laugh, pulling Tony in into a tight embrace, “Love you too, Stark.” 

 

On the other side of the penthouse, Peter was busy explaining the night away to a very curious Mantis whilst Nebula and Gamora examined the metallic object she had found. “And one dude was dressed as a beach astronaut! A beach astronaut, can you believe it? How is that even a thing? Ned would have a riot!” Mantis cocked her head to the side, eyeing Peter with wide curiosity. “How does that work?” And with that, Mantis launched Peter into another tirade explaining the hows and whys of astronaut and swimsuits. Nebula grinder her teeth in pure annoyance, turning to look at Gamora. “I’ll pay you fifty bucks to replace me.” 

 

Gamora snorted in fake amusement. “Not for a million bucks, sis.” She turned the object in her hands, grinning as she finally placed what it was. She had seen it before, back in a Guardian’s mission, Rocket had even tried to steal one but it had ultimately been destroyed by Drax, something that Rocket hadn’t stopped protesting about for a week. “This is a protector. Once activated it launches a forcefield around you, acting as a shield and making it impossible for you to be reached by anything.” She handed the object back to Nebula, shaking her head slightly. “This kind of technology shouldn’t be here…I wonder what else they brought and how.” 

 

Nebula gave her a small smile of thanks, pocketing the protector before Rocket saw it and took it as his. She went off to pull Peter away from his conversation to force him to strategize now that they knew were their criminals were located and more or less what sort of weapons they had.

 

Gamora went back to the living room, taking her seat next to Quill who was more than focused on his conversation with Rocket, Drax, and Tony. She looked around the room, spotting Strange talking to Bruce and Pepper and only a few seats away were Wong and Rhodey who seemed to be discussing their taste in music. She focused back on the conversation next to her, finding herself very quickly amused. Drax seemed to be highly concerned when Tony mentioned he was ‘sad enough to drown in his own tears’ frowning at the statement as he seemed to think it over. 

 

“Why are you so down?” Tony weaved a heavy, dramatic sigh at Quill’s question, sinking further down on his seat. “I don’t want to lose to Strange, I want that medal.” At that Rocket perked up, patting Tony’s knee in an attempt to comfort him, leaning to whisper to him. “It’s not real gold, I tried to sell it online…zero bids.” Tony raised an amused eyebrow at the raccoon’s words, nodding along to his words. “But here’s an advice I gave to Thor, back when we were forging his ax, that advice was hold, hold, _hold_.” Gamora held back a snort as Tony stared at Rocket; “Yeah I’m not sure that really applies here, Rocket…” 

 

“It does apply!” Came the angry reply “It means don’t give up, dumbass.”Tony opened his mouth and then closed it, deciding that this was not worth arguing about. He stood up, aiming a sardonic grin at them, “All right, I’m gonna go cry.” Drax stood up immediately, Stark earlier comment still fresh in mind. “Anthony, it is not possible to cry enough to drown though.” Tony barely held back his eye roll as he walked off, Drax hot on his heel as he tried to explain to the billionaire that it was hopeless to try. 

 

“I kinda feel bad for him…” Gamora turned to look at Quill only to notice that she was not talking to any other them, instead, he was talking into a walkie-talkie. Through it came Stephen’s voice and Gamora raised an eyebrow at her boyfriend, so teams had formed. “Don’t.” Said Stephen’s voice through the device “He brought this on himself, you can ditch the walkie-talkie now.” 

 

Gamora shook her head. This was getting slightly out of hand but she wasn’t going to be the one to stop it, this spying and plotting thing was turning out to be highly amusing and who was she to deny everyone from some free entertaining? 


	4. TO DETHRONE A KING

Peter and Nebula were back on the streets, heading towards the warehouse. It was time to act, they knew the ringleader and now they had it confirmed that they had alien weapons on their hands. No better time than the present to act and, if they were fast enough, they could make it back on time to Tony’s party. 

 

There was something that was bugging Peter though, he didn’t know if it was the best thing to bringing it up but he knew the feeling wouldn’t go away until he did. Not wanting it to hinder him on the mission he thought it best to bring up before they reached the warehouse. “I can’t believe you actually tried to pay Gamora into switching with you.” Nebula slowed down on her tracks, turning to give Peter a puzzled look, she hadn’t expected the comment to hit the kid so hard. “Peter, I had to try, tonight was awful. This holiday is the worst and I don’t understand why you like it, look at how we came out from that Halloween party.” 

 

He rose his shoulders in reply, not turning to look at her. “Most friendships are forged and strengthened in the crucible of adversity. That’s all I wanted for us, this was our Halloween adversity.” Nebula stayed quiet, thinking over his reply. She never had time to respond, however, as they reached the back of the warehouse. Peter glanced back at her as he edged towards the door, “Ready?” 

 

She nodded and they burst in through the door, Peter immediately slinging a web up to have a bigger reach and view as she pulled out her swords, disarming the nearest thug near her that had already aimed his gun. With that the battle truly started, Nebula quickly rolled to the side to hide behind a column when the rest of the perps started firing at her whilst Peter slung himself around the room, aiming and webbing as many guns as he could all while avoiding being shot himself. 

 

Pure adrenaline coursed through him as he slung himself down to tackle a man that was rounding up behind Nebula and taking aiming, successfully tackling him to the ground before he could fire a single round. In turn, Nebula ran out from behind the boulder, jumping towards the nearest guy. She jumped up into him, making him fall down to the ground, as she landed with grace on top of him, legs straddling his torso and trapping his arms by his sides. She twirled the blade on her hand so that the butt of the handle faced the thug and brought it down violently against his forehead, knocking him out instantly.

 

On his side, Spiderman webbed the guy from neck to toes to the ground and quickly somersaulted backward, joining Nebula on the fight, two down, five to go plus the leader. He felt his sense tingle on his ride side and quickly turned in time to dodge a bullet. He threw a web up to the ceiling and slung himself over to the culprit behind the shot, kicking him straight in the sternum toppling him over. He let out a whoop of victory too soon, however, as he went down himself when his foot was grabbed, throwing him off balance and causing him to let go of his web.

 

He went down to the ground, managing to break his fall with his hands but the thug had already gotten back up and aimed a solid kick at Spiderman’s stomach. Peter huffed out a groan of pain as he was slung sideways from the force of the kick, he stood up fast enough to see Nebula wrap her arm around the guy’s neck, bending him backward and drive her knee to the small of his back. The criminal crumbled down with a cry of pain and Nebula threw her weight to the back of her right foot, spun of it and hit the thug with her left heel right on his forehead. Peter held a thumbs up nodding in thanks and Nebula gave him a wry grin in reply. Three down, four to go.

 

“Peter, the King is heading towards the exit! Go after him, these are mine!” Peter, narrowed his eyes towards the door and nodded, knowing Nebula was more than capable to take four guys on her own. “Got it!” He webbed himself up and headed towards the door dropping in front of the leader who drew a weird looking gun at his face. Alien weapon, perfect, Peter webbed the gun and the King fire straight through the web. He barely managed to dodge it, feeling the bullet graze his cheek and hit the door instead. Peter turned his head to see a giant hole in the door and gulped slightly, that would have been his face. He dropped down as King fired a second shot and swept his legs against the leader’s legs, throwing him off balanced. Once King started tilting, Peter drew himself up and aimed a solid punch at his chest, throwing him backward. He jumped up and sideways, avoiding the third shot and webbed King’s unoccupied hand, his left hand, to the ground. 

 

The man let out an enraged yell and started shooting madly towards Spiderman who docked and weaved through the bullets, or blasts more like, trying to get close enough to disarm him. On her side, Nebula was currently being restrained by a thug, his arms were around her middle and trapping her own arms against her body rendering them useless as another criminal rounded up on her, fists drawn up. As soon as the second thug was near enough, Nebula pushed up and back with her legs, against the one restraining her, drawing her feet off and launching them forward and against the second one’s chest. With her inertia she fell forward, the guy restraining her helplessly following the movement, having been caught off guard. As she landed on her feet she tilted herself forward and pushed her arms out cause the thug to let go of her and fly up above her to fall down in front of her. Wasting no time she aimed a kick at his collarbone, effectively collapsing him to the ground and turned to round up on the second perk, slamming her elbows down on the top of his head as he struggled to sit up. Two down, two to go. 

 

Peter was struggling, it was next to impossible to get too close to King with his erratic firing. He knew he couldn’t risk even a graze from the gun, the blast was far too powerful, powers and all he would be heavily injured. Nebula, if the screams of pain from the thugs were anything to go by, was not struggling and Peter envied her slightly. Well, it could be worse, at least he didn’t have a giant billboard slam him to the ground this time. “I’m guessing you’re not a big fan of spiders?” He quickly jumped to the right to dodge the blast. “That’s all right, I get it, I’m not a big fan of criminals. We’re even but could you please—” He ducked quickly, glancing back to look at a giant hole in the wall, “—Stop trying to kill me? Seriously uncool man!” King didn’t seem to care, as he continued to fire, taking aim at Spiderman’s head. “Who raised you?!”

 

Nebula edged behind King, shaking her head in slight disapproval at Peter’s chattering. She truly wondered if Peter did it on purpose to antagonized the leader more or if the kid was truly that chatty and friendly with _everyone_ , including murderous criminals. She came up to King unnoticed and ripped the gun from his hand, ignoring his curses at her and slammed her heel against his temple, stopping him on his tracks. “That’s all of them, let’s round them up and the weapons.” Peter pulled the edge of his mask up to shoot Nebula a blinding grin. “That was awesome! Thanks!” 

 

Peter quickly webbed the thugs to ensure that they stayed restrained as Nebula gathered the weapons and called the compound for backup to have them come and pick up everything and everyone. Once Nebula was done she sat next to Peter, nudging him with her shoulder. “You did great.” Peter seemed to physically perk up at the words, turning to look at her. “Are you kidding me! Did you see yourself, you’re amazing, I mean the best. Not a single hit on you!” Nebula couldn’t help but to smile, it felt so nice to be praised. She was so unused to it and though she’d never ever admitted it, she craved the compliments. It felt nice to have someone’s approval, she was so used to being the failure to be the one that needs to be improved, maybe that’s why she found it easy to form a friendship with Stark and Parker. They both seemed to admire her, Tony had praised her mechanism to no end and Parker seemed to admire everything about her. It was incredibly nice and refreshing to be admired, and to be admired not because of fear but because they actually liked her. 

 

“Thank you, Peter…you’re a nice friend.” She ducked her head at the last part, embarrassed at how mushy she sounded. Peter seemed to grin once more from under his mask, “See! A softy! Which reminds me, I talked to Gamora when we were back home…” Nebula frowned albeit she did look slightly amused this time around, she knew where this was going. 

 

“And?” 

 

“Well guess what she said. Apparently, you were a good student! You left out of your own volition!” Nebula looked around slightly before leaning back in towards Peter with a resigned look. “Fine. The reason I left my school is that I was allowed to take medical training, I wanted to learn how to heal Gam—people’s wounds properly. I had been doing it by myself for awhile and was good at it.” Apparently, that was the perfect answer for Peter, he raised a triumphant finger with an overly happy tone to match. “I knew it! I knew you were a big softy! You wanted to help people!” 

 

Nebula stood up as the team’s van arrived. She looked back at Peter with a blank face, not wanting the kid to know whether she was joking or not. “You tell anyone and I’ll break your face.” Peter glanced up at her as he hoisted to criminals up to lead them to the van, seemingly unfazed by her comments. “No you won’t, you’re too sensitive.” Nebula turned and glared at Peter as he raised his shoulders innocently, she knew she had lost this battle. She growled out slightly and went to help him pass off King, his thugs, and the weapons to the agents in charge of prosecuting. “Shut up, Spiderman.” Peter just chuckled to himself in response. 

 

Once King and his men were turned in and the weapons were properly taken care off; Peter and Nebula headed back to Tony’s loft. The night was still young meaning Peter didn’t miss the party, something he seemed to be more than thrilled about. Thanks to his hurried steps they made it back in record time, something that Nebula was not complaining about, she was done walking around drunken fools in costumes. She headed into the apartment when Peter held the door open for her, shooting him a quick thanks.

 

They rode up on the elevator, Peter saying how he was going to change back into his clothes quickly. “Back to your costume?” Peter shook his head no at the question, “Nah, regular clothes, I was the only one in a costume anyway, kinda lame huh?” He stepped out once the elevator opened, shooting her a quick grin. “Your Halloween nightmare is over.” With that he went off quickly to the room Tony had set up for him, for whenever he stayed overnight, to change. Nebula just joined the rest of the party although she couldn’t shake off Peter’s earlier words about ‘Most friendships are forged and strengthened in the crucible of adversity. That’s all I wanted for us . ’ She hated to admit it but she felt slightly bad. 

 

Peter was such a chipper kid, it seemed almost like a crime to bring down his mood. Nebula couldn’t help but feel like she had slightly and although she was used to not having friends and being on her own it didn’t mean that she liked it or that she had no clue as to how to treat her friends. Peter had always been so nice and welcoming to her, she wanted to do something nice back. She glanced around the room, an idea popping into her mind, she headed over to her sister pulling her away from Quill and ignoring his ‘Hey!’ of protest. “Gamora, I need your help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know how you're liking it so far!


	5. TO WIN A CHALLENGE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final chapter! Thank you to everyone who left kudos and comments, I loved them with all my heart!

Stephen had actually somewhat forgotten the challenge, far too engrossed in the game of chess that Bruce and Wong had going. Well, he had nearly forgotten until he heard Tony’s voice calling him from the hallway. “Baaabe, can you come out here for one sec?” He let out a small sigh as he stood up, throwing one last forlorn look at the game and briefly patting his pocket to feel his keys before going to meet Tony. 

 

“What is it, Tones?” He immediately regretted his words when he saw Tony’s smirk form. “Yes I do, hit it, FRIDAY!” Ten Ironman robots appeared from the end of the hallway and rounded up on Stephen, some grabbing at his cloak, others at his shirt and finally three at his pockets. He tried his best to dodge and stop the hands, glancing up at his snickering boyfriend. “Tony! This is—!” He was getting ready to portal all of them away when he noticed the fact that they were all holding a set of keys on their hands. Great, just great, he had no idea which ones were his, he turned to rant and rave at Tony once more only to notice the fact that his boyfriend was gone. He weaved his way past the legion of robots, muttering a million threats against them and headed towards Tony’s workshop. 

 

He stormed in, catching Tony creating a copy of his keys. Upon hearing the doors of his workshop slide open, the billionaire looked up throwing Stephen the most annoyed look possible. “What—no!” Stephen’s glare hardened, he had just been groped by robots and his boyfriend had the audacity to be annoyed at _him_? “Give me my keys back, Tony.” Instead of complying Tony groaned in protest, giving him a slight petulant pout. 

“Will you stop catching me? Do you have any idea how much I spend on keys for those bots?” Stephen threw Tony an incredulous look but answered nonetheless. “23 dollars?” Tony smiled, seemingly impressed, “Wow, that is unbelievably close, it was 22.76 dollars.” Stephen answered back in a deadpanned tone. “And since when have you cared about spending 22.76 dollars to _try_ and win a bet?” Now it was Tony’s turned to glare, he tossed the keys back to Strange, giving him a resigned look. 

 

“Okay look, tonight has been a little humiliating. Things are not going well, so I’m just going to throw this out there. What do you say we called off the bet? Pretend this whole thing never happened.”   
Stephen’s eyebrows rose in pure astonishment. He knew he heard correctly but he still had trouble believing it.Tony Stark was giving up? He never thought he’d see the day and as much as he loved the man, Stephen’s ego was not going to let that happen, not when he basically had it confirmed that he was winning. “Oh, I’m not letting you off the hook.” Tony groaned in annoyance, swiping a hand across his face. “You know, I was doing this for you, giving you an out so that you could save face.” Stephen stared Tony down, taking a full two minutes to even be able to reply to that. 

 

“Tony…this is getting sad.”

 

Peter rejoined the party twenty minutes later, just in time to see Tony angrily storm off with a worried Mantis behind him and Stephen sit down next to Quill and Pepper with a petulant look. He glanced between them with a confused look on his face before joining Groot, Happy and Rhodey who seemed to be engrossed in a video game, much to Rocket’s constant complaints. 

 

He glanced around the room to see Wong take money from a disgruntled Bruce, apparently having won a chess match. Quill, Pepper, and Strange seemed to be venting or plotting with each other, Peter couldn’t tell and for some reason, Nebula and Gamora were nowhere to be seen but no one seemed to care too much about that so he decided to not give it much thought. If something was wrong FRIDAY would have alerted them.

 

He settled back against the couch to watch Groot annihilate Rhodey and Happy in Mario Kart. Hiding back a grin at Rocket’s indignant shouts of: “You’re just rotting your brains!” 

Once he saw the match was coming to an end, Peter quickly shouted that he was next to play, causing Rocket to shoot him a dirty look and head off to join Wong, Bruce and now Drax, who had just entered the room, to continue making bets. 

 

He loved this, they felt so much like a family now, all of them. Peter wouldn’t trade this for the world, it had taken them some time to get to where they were but he was sure that nothing could end the friendship they had formed. He grinned widely at Strange when they crossed looks and the Sorcerer warmly smiled back at him, oh yes, Peter definitely felt at home here too. 

 

Not thirty minutes had passed when Mantis came running back in a look of pure worry on her face. “Dr. Strange! Tony burned himself with a blowtorch, he was trying to melt your safe! He’s in his room but—” Stephen was out of the room before she could finish could finish her sentence, hurriedly running towards Tony’s room. For a genius, Tony could be so idiotic at times, constantly injuring himself. Stephen was beyond worried, he didn’t even bother to ask Mantis if he was truly okay, he needed to see it with his own eyes anyway.

 

He barged into Tony’s room, stopping short when he saw him lying on the bed, bandages wrapped around his middle. “Tony! What happened?” Tony grinned somewhat maliciously at him, spreading his arms open as he spoken. “Doctor, welcome to the end game.” Stephen stopped in his tracks, raising his eyebrows at Tony’s words. “Beg pardon? You burned yourself with a blowtorch, what were you thinking?” Stark’s grin grew. 

 

“I was thinking it was the perfect distraction, I’m not actually burnt. I know how to handle my blows.” Stephen closed his eyes at Tony’s words of choice, the billionaire did it on purpose and he refused to fall into that hole.   
“Look, I knew you wouldn’t win the bet but your strategies tonight have made me question not only your thinking process but if you’re actually a genius.” Tony gave a mock gasp of hurt at Stephen’s words; “You wound me, Strange.”

 

Stephen ignored him, crossing his arms over his chest. “Face it, Tony. You have five minutes until your deadline, and here you are, lying on your bed, pretending to be hurt.” Tony nodded, confidence and arrogance dripping from his voice. “Which is precisely where I planned on being. Stephen, let me tell you a little story.” Curiosity peaked, Stephen gave the ‘go ahead’ sign with his hand. 

 

“You remember when my bot fell through your ceiling?” Stephen nodded. “Yes, that was only three hours ago.” Tony waved his hand in dismissal, steamrolling past him. “It was, as much as I hate to admit, a disastrous failure. But it gave me the idea for Fake-Quill breaking into your office. With him I commenced the perfect crime” Stephen gave Tony an irritated look, this story was going nowhere. “I caught Rhodey or Fake-Quill.” 

 

Tony’s cockiness grew more, he leaned in towards Stephen with a shit-eating grin. “But you didn’t catch Rocket.” And with that Strange froze in his tracks. 

“As it turns out, our friend Rocket is great at picking locks.”

Stephen tilted his head slightly as he considered that. “Well, that doesn’t surprise me.”

 

“No, me neither. Of course, I had to find a way to get him out of your office without you seeing him. So I created a diversion, not mistimed, perfectly timed, whilst Dum-E sprayed you, Rocket escaped unseen.” Stephen frowned, not having expected that at all, still something wasn’t adding up. “What about Wong?” 

 

Tony shrugged. “He was an immediate backup plan of sorts, either scenario would have worked.” Stephen shrugged, that did make sense and he _had_ nearly fallen into that trap after all. “Well then, what about the cables?” Tony raised his eyebrows far too amused. “Oh, the faulty cables? They were a red herring, thank you. Their only purpose was to draw you to the next room whilst two members of my team, Rhodey and Wong broke into your office and broke the lock, so now I had a way into your office and your cabinet. All that was left was for the Ironman bots to steal your keys.”

 

Stephen frowned, confused at the last statement. “Okay, but you didn’t _need_ the keys. My cabinet and office were already unlocked…apparently. What you needed was a way into my safe.” Tony nodded in agreement, his confidence unshakable. “And I got it, you were so concerned with getting your keys back you didn’t notice Groot stole your phone. That’s right, even Groot is on my side. I then dusted your screen cover for prints, the greasiest smudges revealed the four numbers you used the most. The four numbers in your passcode.” 

 

Tony gave Stephen a slightly mocking look as he continued explaining his plan. “Based on your lack of tech usage, I assumed you use the same passcode for everything, your phone, your email and of course, your safe.” Stephen glanced upwards, cursing inwardly, he had been made, reluctantly and with a grimace admitted to his mistake. “That would be a fair assumption.” 

 

Tony shook his head slightly amused, slightly appalled. “You make yourself so hackable, babe, but that’s a discussion for later. Back to my plan! It was at that point that I bumped into Drax, who proceeded to question me on my IronMan name once more since I am ‘not made of iron’” The last part was said in a poor imitation of Drax’s voice. “I spend thirty minutes trying to explain that the suit was with Drax replying that suit was not a man so once more, my name did not make sense.” 

 

“How was arguing with Drax part of the plan?” 

 

“It wasn’t, but it was incredibly annoying and I needed to vent. But that brings us to about five minutes ago, when Mantis came to the living room, screaming at you that I had gotten hurt. I knew she’s the only one you would believe since she’s usually too kind and innocent to partake in these things.” Stephen nodded in agreement. “And as you walked over here, Rhodey entered your office and opened your safe. We had the four numbers of your code, which meant there were 24 possible combinations for him to try, which can take up to four and a half minutes, which is why I dragged out this explanation.” 

 

Stephen leaned back slightly, taking in Tony’s words he had truly been played. “But now the four and a half minutes are up, which means Rhodey is on the other side of my door, holding your medal, or I’ve lost.” Strange couldn’t resist and walked over to open the door to be faced with an equally as cocky Rhodey, who was holding his medal up. 

 

“Well, doctor, it seems Tones was right once more we—” Stephen took his medal and slammed the door on Rhodey’s face. Tony glanced over at his watch, his arrogant tone invading the room once more. “Twenty seconds to spare. Game over, Strange.” Despite his obvious failure, Stephen had to admit that he was impressed, Tony’s genius was really incomparable. “Well done, dear, just one question, how did you get nearly everyone to help you?” 

 

Tony straightened up slightly at the question. “I appealed to their senses of teamwork and camaraderie with a rousing speech that would put Shakespeare to shame.” 

 

“No, you didn’t.” 

 

“No, I didn’t, I begged them and promised to do their future missions report for a month if we managed to pull this off.” Stephen smiled, that made a lot more sense, he glanced at his medal with a shake of his head heading back towards the door. “I’m impressed, Tony, well done, love.” With that, he headed back out to meet Rhodey, much to his dismay. He didn’t mind losing in front of Tony but in front of the others it was another thing, he still had a big ego after all. 

 

“—In fact the thing that you failed to see, Doctor, is that teamwork…” Stephen quickly hurried his steps to lose Rhodey, who started following him anyways, Tony’s laughter trailing behind them. 

 

Meanwhile, Peter had dozed off on the couch, after having lost to Groot in Mario Kart, and had woken up an hour later to see an empty room. Worriedly he sat up, looking around to spot a sign of the others but he found none, he hurried to the door when Stephen walked in a small smile on his face. “Peter, come on, we’re all out on the roof.” He placed a comforting hand on the kid’s shoulder leading the confused teen out the door and to the elevator. 

 

“What’s happening?” 

 

“You’ll see," Stephen replied as the elevator doors opened on the roof. Peter stepped out to be greeted by the rest of the party, all decked out in costumes, music playing from the speakers. He blinked several times, not believing what he was seeing, even Nebula was wearing a costume, he turned around to see Stephen put on an eye patch and join the rest of the group. A small smile slipped on his face as he looked back towards Nebula, “What’s all this?” 

 

Nebula stepped up to meet him, a shy smile in place, she was covered in toilet paper a poor but sweet attempt to dress up as a mummy. “You know how I think that Halloween is for idiotic jerks?” Peter nodded remembering her protests all too well. “Well, on this Halloween I was the idiotic jerk. I’m sorry about tonight —”

 

Star-Lord’s voice piped up “I’m sorry about tonight! We found the Nebula’s follow-up sex tape!” She turned and threw a withering look at Quill, halting Rocket in his tracks as he was about to high-five Quill. Peter decided to ignore them, Nebula’s gesture was so sweet, his smile wouldn’t back down, not even a bit. “I’m sorry I didn’t make tonight fun enough for you, Nebu.” 

 

Nebula smiles back at him, shaking her head. “It’s not your fault, I was terrible.” 

“It’s not your fault I was terrible is also—” Nebula turned back and slammed her hand against Quill’s collarbone, chocking him off before turning back to Peter. “Halloween is unbearable, but it was slightly less unbearable with you.” 

 

Quill opened up his mouth once more but this time it was Gamora that cut him off with a stern look. Peter huffed out a small laugh and focused back on Nebula. “I planned this small Halloween party for you, we’re all dressed up you should be too.” She turned back towards Mantis who handed her something, which turned out to be his chef costume. “I brought you your costume, join us?” Peter snatched the clothes and wig and put them on in record time. “Nebu, I don’t know what to say! This is the best!” 

 

He launched herself towards her, hugging her tightly. Nebula was startled at first, freezing up in the embrace but slowly and surely she slowly melted into it and hugged him back. Drax let out a victorious shout and pulled the rest of the group into the hug, letting them go after a few minutes once they all started protesting that enough was enough.

 

Soon enough everyone was dancing, laughing and chatting. Easy laughter running throughout the roof and Peter found himself walking towards Tony and Strange who were holding hands and talking by the elevator. “Hey, guys! What’s up?” The billionaire was the first to turn, facing Peter with a grin. “Underoos! I was just consoling Stephen on his loss.” Stephen rolled his eyes, ignoring Peter’s confused look in favor or snarking back at Stark. “And you’re a poor winner, never would’ve guessed that one.” 

 

Tony waved a hand at him. “Yeah you would’ve, way to go all out on your costume, by the way, you could’ve at least dressed as a wizard—” Stephen huffed in disapproval and Tony turned towards Peter. “Kid! I believe Strange has something to say about technology and magic.” Peter’s confused look grew exponentially. 

 

Stephen in turn, let out a defeated noise and turned to face Peter and the rest of the group. “Attention everyone!” He waited until they had all turned to face him, shooting Tony a dirty look before facing back to the rest. “Magic is the most useless thing in the whole universe, I do not understand why we need magic when we have Stark Technologies at hand—” Peter turned to see Tony mouthing the same words that Stephen was uttering out “—…now if you’ll excuse me…I have some breakfasts to plan.” Tony laughed, pulling Strange down to place a kiss against the sorcerers pouting lips — much to Peter’s noises of protest and complaints about PDAs—and linked his fingers with Stephens once more. 

 

“Mr. Stark, Dr. Strange, what actually happened whilst I was gone?” Tony grinned at the question, giving a fond squeeze to Stephen’s hand. “I bet him that I could steal his medal before midnight and quite obviously, won.” Peter’s eyebrows rose up in amusement as he grinned at them both. “Oh my god! You guys were doing a challenge of who can steal a medal? That’s just like an episode from Brookl—” Peter was quickly interrupted by Tony before he could finish his sentence. “No! What did I say? Not a single pop culture reference from you!”

**Author's Note:**

> A HUGE THANKS TO MY FRIEND AND BETA: MH   
> (Lob chu)


End file.
